We’re starting to plant!

Thanks once again to our friend Kirsten Akre, who runs three organic greenhouses for the Chicago Park District, Ginkgo has been able to get a headstart on seed-sowing this year. This was a great help for the 2009 season: we were able to take strong, happy plants to the garden once the danger of frost had passed (which in Chicago is, surprisingly, mid-May) instead of just beginning to sow seeds directly in the ground then. And, of course, despite having had a mild week, it was sleeting and snowing on our first Saturday in the greenhouse.

Nonetheless, we started by planting our ever-popular greens:

• Georgia (southern) collards
• Rhubarb swiss chard (red)
• Red Russian kale
• Dwarf Siberian kale
• Dinosaur kale [not planted in 2009]
• Winningstadt cabbage
• Utah celery [not planted in 2009]

And we also planted some herbs:

• Cilantro
• Sweet basil (some labeled Genovese and some not)
• Dark purple opal basil
• Tarragon
• Italian dark green parsley

Kirsten and her volunteers had already started trays and trays of seeds in anticipation of Kilbourn Park’s annual organic plant sale (May 15-16). It was very inspiring to see how well her plants were already doing.